Busy Busy July

Thursday afternoon I had to attend a farewell party in Toyama city for all leaving JETs. You may think that's strange, but it's because I'm leaving the prefectural board of education as a High School ALT and switching to a new employer -the Kurobe Board of Education. So offically I am leaving my post. It was short and sweet, but still an afternoon's travel to Toyama. I tried to make the most of it by meeting up for lunch with some of the actual leavers -thanks Jake, Andy and Brian for joining me! After the meeting some of us went for a quick bite/drink -OK, I only stayed for a quick drink. There were other's with grander ideas...
The three in the first photo finished the bottle that I'm holding in the second photo - ANIMALS!!







On Friday I went all the way to Fushiki (it's on the other side of the prefecture -takes about 2 hours for me to get there) for an international day at a fellow third year ALT's High School. I just talked about Canada for 50 minutes. I tried using power point (for the first time) and it ended up being just a slide show. BORING. Oh well, I love talking about West Edmonton Mall. Although, it really is one of those places you have to see for yourself.

Like I posted in my workout journal, I signed up for a triathlon this weekend. The only thing is that I really haven't trained for it and there's so much going on this month -this week in particular- that I'm a bit concerned I'm going to fall apart before I finish. I managed to rush home after the international day and hop in the pool before heading to Colare for the annual farewell dinner for the leaving JETs. REALLY, there are goodbye parties all month, I'm not kidding!! Jenn, Amber, Kate, Amy and Gillian were all there to say their goodbyes. A lot of students came as well as the regular Colare crowd. It's always fun and a little bizarre and I think that's why I keep attending these events. You just never know what kind of conversation you're going to have.

Saturday was the annual JET farewell party, put on by the ALTs in Toyama Prefecture -see I told you -party party party. It's held in a small town called Toga which is tucked way up inside the Japan alps. There's an international campsite where we rent cabins and have a big BBQ. I wasn't going to go this year, it's usually just a big drinking binge, but K and Johnny and I decided we could make a day of it if we left early in the morning and found a mountain to climb before the party. I love my neighbors!!

K and I did a quick internet search before bed on Friday and found a mountain that seemed like it was close enough to where we were going to be. So we packed up the Beetle and were on the expressway at 9:00. We got into Toga Village around 10:30, nice and early, with lots of time to explore. We saw sign for a Meditation Centre -Kirsten had heard about it before and so we decided to check it out. It was the best decision of the day!! It was awesome. We got there just in time to see some Nepalese dancers, we explored the two buildings that housed some Buddhist Mandalas and sculptures, and most excitingly...we had Nepalese food for lunch!! It was great! We were served by the same people who were doing the dancing earlier. One of the men spoke great English and we had a nice conversation. They were visiting for 5 and a half months on a sister city program. This is the tenth time their villages had had this kind of exchange.































After reluctanly leaving the Meditation Centre we drove to the campsite to see if anyone was there and to find out any information on nearby mountains to climb. A finger was waved to a point down the road and off we went. K's instinct told us to follow a gravel road and after one false start wading through a river, we were headed up a mountain trail by 2:00.

2 hours and 5km later we were at the top! The view was pretty much zero as the clouds were low. Supposedly you can see the whole Tateyama mountain range from this peak. We could see the bushes in front of us...




We stopped long enough for a quick snack and then headed back down the mountain...after all, we had a party to attend. The heat and humidity, combined with the mud and muck left us no choice but to visit an onsen before making an appearance at the campsite. We went for a quick bath at a local onsen to get the salt and mud off and then put our squeeky clean bodies back in the car and headed to the campsite.

The drinking had already started and we had had such an amazing day already that the party was kind of anti-climactic. We did enjoy ourselves though -cooked our own dinner of SPICEY Thai noodles and other savoury snacks, stayed for the awards (popularity contest, which, surprise surprise, none of the Nyuzen JETs won...haha, zannen desu yo ne!!!!) and then we packed up the Beetle again, took on an extra passenger and hit the road for home. Stories of hand grenades and handfulls of Poppycock kept me awake for the twisty ride home.

I was asleep before my head hit the pillow and before I knew it it was 6:30 and I was prepping for my SUNDAY adventure into the mountains!!!! VW ROAD TRIP TO TAKAYAMA. I've written enough for today. I'll just leave pics.